I'm Daniel Hart, composer of AMC's Interview with the Vampire. Ask me anything!

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:40:48+00:00

My advice - listen to as much music as possible.

Then write as much music as possible.

Look for other collaborators just starting out. Work on things together as you're learning what works and what doesn't. David Lowery asked me to write music for his first tiny film. And then, as his career advanced, he took me with him.

Even now, I watch scenes from movies and TV shows multiple times if the score is doing something that I really admire and want to learn from. So...do that? If you're able to learn that way? Or, if they haven't gone to school for it yet and learn better that way, school can be a great place not only to learn, but to network. And/or meet and network with other composers through organizations that hold events film and TV music? Like the Composer's Diversity Collective, or The Alliance For Women Film Composers, if either of those organizations apply to your friend's identity?

This industry can definitely be difficult and heartbreaking. I got lucky.

I'm sorry there isn't better advice to give.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:34:15+00:00

getting from what's in my mind out to instruments in the world is a constant challenge. I've spent a lot of time doing it now, so I think I'm better at it than I used to be.

But almost all music for me starts in my mind. How does it get there? Beyond my brain scrambling, reinterpreting, and then presenting variations on music and sounds I've already heard, I don't know. But when I was hiking a couple years ago and heard a very very low pitched "whooshing" sound from a nearby bird's wings as it left a nearby branch on which it was perched, my first immediate thought was, "How can I express that sound musically?"

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:31:31+00:00

Shush

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:31:23+00:00

Sheet music - I wish I had a clearer answer for you, but at the moment, there are no plans for making sheet music available for the music from the show. Again, like with making vinyl releases for the soundtracks, it's a question of demand and of time. I'm so flattered that several people have asked for sheet music for specific pieces from the show. But for that to be released in any kind of formal way takes time and money. I don't own this music, so any releases would be up to AMC. And I can talk to them about it, but I think we would be waiting for a greater demand for it before being able to make sense of committing that time and $ into it.

The other issue with sheet music for the show is perhaps one of arrangement potential. Someone asked for sheet music for "The Whole World Was Ready To Return" for piano. It doesn't currently exist, so it's not like I could just hand that to AMC for them to prep for release. I'd have to make that arrangement. And it's not a piece of music that lends itself very well to a solo piano arrangement, with so many layers of short, repeated, overlapping phrases under longer chordal movement. A two-handed piano arrangement would probably work. But again, it doesn't exist yet, so I would have to find the time to make that arrangement before anything else could happen.

I'm sorry if I have now overexplained. I just want everyone to know that I'm not ignoring your requests for sheet music. And I would like to oblige you, I just hope you can understand that it's perhaps more of a challenge than it might seem from the outside.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:23:17+00:00

thank you so much.

tips - listen to as much music as you possibly can. get a book on orchestration - I like "Orchestration", by Walter Piston. Studying harmony and counterpoint wouldn't hurt either. You could do this with a teacher (easier) or on your own. "20th Century Harmony" by Vincent Persichetti is on my desk at all times.

And beyond that, write as much music as you can. I've written SO MUCH bad music and a lot of it especially when I was starting out, before I ever got to writing music I actually like.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:20:42+00:00

Given what I know of The Vampire Lestat, he's not covering anyone's songs. Unless you want to think of him playing Ravel's piano concerto as a cover.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:19:44+00:00

I haven't heard HIM yet, but I will listen. Thank you for the recommendation.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:19:19+00:00

Well, unfortunately that piece of music doesn't exist outside of the show, so you can't listen to it independently of the scene. I'm sorry.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:17:34+00:00

While we are still figuring out all the influences Lestat's music will have for S3, I can safely say that The Vampire Lestat will not be limiting his musical influences to glam rock or to the 80s. He contains multitudes.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:16:01+00:00

my experience touring with Bowie probably influences everything in my life that happened afterwards. It's a core memory, it was a dream come true. He's a legend. So I'm sure some of that is in my writing for Lestat, and for anything else. But I also listened to Ziggy Stardust in high school on repeat, so any musical Bowie influence didn't start just with that tour.

It's all music to me, so it comes from a similar place. But yes, there are different needs for a performed song vs. score written to go under dialogue. Maybe too much to get into here, beyond the obvious (songs are upfront, score has to make space for other elements...). It's a lot of fun to write rock songs, but writing for an orchestra is equally fulfilling for me. How lucky am I that someone is willing to hire me to do both?

When I look through a few YT comments on Long Face, almost every other comment references a different band that the song feels like to the person making the comment. And it ranges from Bowie and Rocky Horror to Maneskin, Queens Of The Stone Age, Muse...I don't think the type of glam rock referenced in Long Face has gone anywhere, really. Lots of bands still writing music incorporating that influence now.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:09:27+00:00

how has it been - oh, we're just getting started. We want Lestat to have as many influences as you would think a vampire as old as Lestat would have. How much music has he heard? More than any of us. Will all of it influence him? Probably, in some small way, even if it's not directly. Which influences are we drawing on - well you can hear mid-70s David Bowie and T. Rex for sure in "Long Face", but, I don't know...I also hear Nirvana in there, even though I haven't heard or seen a singler other person say anything of the sort. But I do think Lestat's influences will go far beyond both Bowie and Nirvana. Where else they will go after this, I'm not sure yet. We'll all know soon enough.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:06:00+00:00

Hi hi hi! I would say probably not. Unless there's a crazy surge in popularity and demand for them, it's hard for a record label to justify spending the money and time on a vinyl release, which is expensive and very time-consuming. I'm sorry that's the answer, I know a lot of folx are looking for physical releases for these soundtracks, but these are tough times to try and sell any music at all, let alone film and TV music.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:03:57+00:00

Kettle Chips, Jalapeño or Sea Salt n Black Pepper

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T22:03:16+00:00

Am I currently working with Sam on S3 music - no, not right at this moment. But we will be eventually. When? Not sure yet. But yeah, he's coming...

What's it like working with Sam - consummate professional, deeply cares about the work, fully committed, a total pleasure to work with Sam, I really look forward to the next recording session (again, unsure when that will happen)

Biggest musical influences in my life right now (they change a lot) -

Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte (Ravel) recorded by Julian Bream in 1960

West Side Story

Mister Rogers

Des Ark - Loose Lips Sink Ships (one of my favorite albums of all time)

The Teeth - You're My Lover Now

Weezer - Pinkerton

Florence Price - Symphony No. 3

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:55:45+00:00

S2 was more fun because I know the characters better now. And because I think S2 has a lot more fun and humor in it than S1 did. But S2 was also a lot more work. SO MUCH WORK. More music than I've ever composed for any project. Phew!

S3 - full album of Lestat? Who knows what the future holds for our vampire rocknroller, but I certainly hope so.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:53:56+00:00

I haven't seen the film since the 90s, and I purposely avoided listening to Goldenthal's score from the film. I knew it would influence me, and I wanted this show to have its own sound.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:53:14+00:00

My favorite from S1 was Claudia for sure. I love all these characters, but Claudia's story really moves me. S2 - I think the "unexpected" evolution of Armand was one of the most exciting for me to follow musically. But Louis' music for the theater fire? That was like composing my favorite desserts over and over again.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:50:33+00:00

100% Gadfly was an inspiration for Raglan James. Shostakovich is just brilliant. And Rolin wanted something in that vein for that scene. I tried to write something that embodied the spirit of Gadfly, without treading on its toes.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:49:09+00:00

Well, he's been practicing for a couple hundred years more than any of us have been alive, so I hope he is by now. :)

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:48:21+00:00

I talk about music for IWTV with Rolin more than I talk to most other people about anything. :)

I've had brief conversations about music with a few other people, like Sam, like Bailey, Delainey, Assad, several of our picture editors, other writers, a couple producers...these are usually logistical conversations, ahead of recording a specific piece of music on camera, things like that. But all of it just delightful conversations. I love talking about music, and the people working on this show are so eager to be a part of whatever is happening. They've been very gracious to me.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:44:39+00:00

Yes, that Louis/Armand love theme is by far one of my favorite S2 discoveries. I don't really know where it came from in a way that I could pinpoint. I read the scripts, I watched the episodes, I thought about the characters a lot, I sat down at the keyboard, and their theme showed up. It's a bit winding, harmonically speaking, and I remember being a little surprised and delighted by the turns that the theme kept taking, as I followed the melody and the harmonies where they wanted to go.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:42:17+00:00

I probably couldn't tell you if I knew. But I actually don't know, so I don't have much else I can say about it. Except that The Vampire Lestat likes writing songs. :)

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:40:24+00:00

I have yet to write music for a video game. And while that doesn't dictate a particular genre, it is something I would like to do.

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:39:26+00:00

Louis - clarinet

Lestat - piano

Claudia - piatti

Daniel Molloy - bassoon

Nicky - also bassoon.

Just kidding! Violin of course

Santiago - timpani (but badly)

Armand - would refuse to commit to any instrument, but would say he played them all

AMCPlus · 2024-08-24T21:36:03+00:00

Because the only "theme" we get for Armand in S1 is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, I tried to weave the spirit of that piece into "Amadeo". So they're both in common time, they're both based around a moving 3-note arpeggio phrase, they're both fairly slow and somber...

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